FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary 1× evolution data only (1×EV-DO) forward link frame. 1×EV-DO is a data only mobile telecommunications standard. The forward link frame of the 1×EV-DO standard is a downlink frame of data from a base station to a mobile station in a telecommunications system. As illustrated in FIG. 1, one frame has 16 time slots, and each time slot has a duration of 1.67 ms. In 1×EV-DO Revision 0, only one user is allowed in each time slot. FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary time slot in accordance with 1×EV-DO Revision A. As illustrated in FIG. 2, Revision A can allow, for example, three users in one time slot. However, this only applies to broadcast information, and accordingly, all three users are lumped together in the time slot and are given the total power allowed for the time slot.
There are a number of disadvantages in the manner in which Revision A allows users to share the same time slot. For example, assuming that all three users are being sent information in one time slot of a forward link frame, the information is broadcast as a single packet of information to all three users. Accordingly, if less than all of the users received the information, the entire time slot is re-sent including the information for all three users. This results in a waste of system resources on the air-interface, where resources are particularly valuable. For example, for a data rate of 38.4 kb/s in 1×EV-DO, the system is required to send 16 time slots of data. If the receiver manages to extract the information for two users after 8 time slots; the system will still send information for those two users until the third user extracts his information. This results in an unnecessary waste of capacity, when pathloss is different for the various users, as it might be difficult to find three users with the same RF conditions.